Unlike the aproned women who supported all things domestic, men in service were dressed to reflect the formality of their employers, the showmanship of empire.

To dress as a nobleman and be relegated to only the most menial duties was un unforgiving regimen, but a common one. (Good-looking footmen were also paid more than their less-attractive colleagues: the taller the man, the higher the wage.)

Nevertheless, some early impressions of life in America were enthusiastic, optimistic, even giddy. This is a splendid country, wrote one man, upon arrival from County Mayo to the city of Minneapolis in the 1870s. I can sit at a table as good as the best man in Belmullet.

That initial sentiment soon gave way to a more indelible reality. Work was work: looking the part, playing the part—indeed, never to part with traditions, inequitable as they were, that long preceded your arrival.